The present invention generally relates to signal receiving devices, and more particularly, to a multi-channel satellite signal receiver.
A conventional satellite receiving device, such as a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) receiver, can tune to any one of a number of satellite transponders, each transponder transmitting a downlink signal in a particular frequency band. The transponder downlink signal typically represents a bit stream in a packet format, the packets conveying data, such as audio, video, programming information, etc., associated with one or more broadcast channels or services. In this regard, each transponder is typically associated with a different set of broadcast channels. As such, a desired sports program may be found on one of the broadcast channels associated with one transponder while a movie may be found on one of the broadcast channels associated with a different transponder.
Unfortunately, as noted above, such a conventional satellite receiving device only tunes to one downlink signal from one transponder at a time. This leads to a number of problems. For example, “channel surfing,” i.e., switching from one broadcast channel to another, may entail switching transponders, which causes additional processing delays—delays that slow down the channel surfing process. Further, in households that desire to simultaneously watch, or listen, to programs associated with different transponders—those households must spend more money to purchase, or lease, multiple conventional satellite receiving devices.